A call for African universities to define their research priorities
Authors: Alice Sipiyian Lakati, Peninah Kinya Masibo
Journal: The Lancet Global Health (2023)

In general, African universities continue to lag behind in research and development for various reasons including: an historical legacy of power and resource imbalances, a scarcity of quality and skilled researchers, meagre research infrastructure, a scarcity of local funding, and inadequate capacity to compete for international funding opportunities.1Izugbara CO Kabiru CW Amendah D et al."It takes more than a fellowship program": reflections on capacity strengthening for health systems research in sub-Saharan Africa.BMC Health Serv Res. 2017; 17: 696Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar While many African universities lack the capacity to compete for international research funding opportunities, local funding sources are commonly disjointed, insufficient, and inadequately publicised.2Sam-Agudu NA Paintsil E Aliyu MH et al.Building sustainable local capacity for global health research in west Africa.Ann Glob Health. 2016; 82: 1010-1025Crossref Scopus (0) Google Scholar The call for African universities to define their research agendas is now more urgent than ever. In many countries, governments' funding of universities has substantially reduced. In Kenya for example, in 2022, the government reduced public universities' funding by 26% and covered only 49·5% of the tuition fees per student against an ideal requirement of 80%.3Silas S Winnie M Improving the performance of public universities in delivering higher education in Kenya.https://kippra.or.ke/improving-the-performance-of-public-universities-in-delivering-higher-education-in-kenya/Date: Nov 29, 2022Date accessed: June 26, 2023Google Scholar Some of the effects of poor funding include: the inability to implement market-driven courses such as information technology, health sciences, research methods, and courses associated with the blue economy for the sustainability of the oceans and waterbodies' health and economic growth. Universities are also unable to expand and upgrade learning facilities such as laboratories or recruit more academic staff; research activities are barely implemented.4Tunje WU Muschelwicz K Funding challenges and their effect on growth of public universities in Kenya: a case of Pwani University.IJRISS. 2020; IV: 2454-6186Google Scholar Such impediments to training future generations of researchers perpetuate a vicious cycle of continental disadvantage. Progress has been made in African-led research; however, foreign institutions still dominate local research.5Sam-Agudu NA Paintsil E Aliyu MH et al.Building sustainable local capacity for global health research in west Africa.Ann Glob Health. 2016; 82: 1010-1025Crossref Scopus (0) Google Scholar Furthermore, universities have been challenged to diversify income generation and research is mooted among the top options along with entrepreneurship. African universities are strategically positioned to lead research in Africa for many reasons.6Kasprowicz VO Chopera D Waddilove KD et al.African-led health research and capacity building—is it working?.BMC Public Health. 2020; 201104Crossref Scopus (46) Google Scholar Their faculty and students understand local contexts and conduct research that is directly responsive to local needs. They have the ability for long-term partnerships with communities and local authorities, to communicate research findings in culturally appropriate ways and to promote the adoption of research findings in policy and practice. They have an opportunity to enhance local ownership of research outputs. Research outputs from within the continent are more available to other African researchers and students than research output from outside the continent that is published in journals to which African researchers have limited access. There are increased opportunities for the mentorship of junior African researchers and increased opportunities to nurture and develop capacity for research leadership and principal investigatorship. Africa's high burden of disease makes it a priority setting for research. In recent years, international funders have shown an appreciation of the importance of refocusing internationally-led research and capacity-strengthening models in favour of more African-led models.6Kasprowicz VO Chopera D Waddilove KD et al.African-led health research and capacity building—is it working?.BMC Public Health. 2020; 201104Crossref Scopus (46) Google Scholar While challenges remain, this shift presents an opportunity for African universities. Through analyses of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and strategic planning, African universities can identify their research priorities and create roadmaps for follow-through. Clear research priorities will allow universities to build faculty and student capacity in the identified priority areas, allow external partners to reach out to specialised units, facilitate more focused applications for grants, and eliminate the need to opportunistically apply for all prospects leading to uncompetitive applications that are inadequately supported by experience and expertise. To effectively implement the priorities, there is a need to intentionally break internal and external silos between schools, departments, and faculties, pulling together as local universities for cross-partnership and internal sharing of resources. Universities that have consistently generated research outputs in their priority areas perform substantially better in attracting partners and research funding than those who have not.7BTI Transformation IndexKenya country report 2022.https://bti-project.org/en/reports/country-report/KENDate: 2022Date accessed: August 7, 2023Google Scholar International partnerships are welcome but should be driven and led by African researchers. A paradigm shift in approach to research and training is inescapable. We need to intentionally grow a culture of research among students and faculty members and strengthen institutional research support mechanisms to ensure African universities can assume their role of leading high quality, locally relevant, and culturally acceptable research across the continent. We declare no competing interests.